April 27, 2009

Journal: Role of the gods

The gods come off as all knowing and infallible beings, but in the case of the prophecy of Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother, the people are trying to defy the same gods that they believe to always be right. The people who are able to talk with the gods are just the oracles at the various temples of each god, but anybody is able to just cry out to a god and shout "But why?!" at any time they so please. The dependence upon the oracles means that people have to go back and forth to them when they get a prophecy because first they have to get it, then go tell all of their friends and family who want to know the answer, then go back to tell the oracle that the message was wrong and then return once again to everybody to tell them that the oracle told them the exact same thing a second time. With all of this trekking back and forth, it doesn't appear that people do anything else except for getting messages from the oracle and contesting them with the help of their friends and family, rather than taking care of their actual duties of being the king or an efficient intercity messenger.

April 23, 2009

Oedipus-Sophocles Journal

Summary:

Oedipus addresses his people asking why they are so worried and while doing so, he helps an old man to his feet, showing his compassion for the normal person. The priest responds to Oedipus' inquiry by explaining that the reason for all the woe is that everyone in the city is weak and the gods do not appear to be helping. The priest then asks if the king has any extra knowledge or power bestowed upon him by the gods that helped him to defeat the Sphinx and if so, if he would help to right the wrongs of society. Oedipus explains that he is unable to help the city because he is weak from worrying about everyone all at once rather than just for himself individually. Creon arrives with news that he believes Oedipus would prefer to hear in private instead of around the priests but the king tells him to do it there anyway. Creon reveals that Apollo wants the killer of Laius, the king before Oedipus, to be brought to justice with the "eye for an eye" method of justice. Oedipus then questions Creon for information about the former ruler's killer but Creon tells the king that the only witness who was not killed is unable to recall anything from the event. Oedipus learns that Laius was killed by a band of thieves outside of Thebes and the people of the city had not gone out to find the killers because the Sphinx had convinced them not to. Oedipus declares that he is ready to find the killer, acting as Apollo's champion and employing the help of the priests to find the culprit so as to end the plague besieging the city. The townspeople are in the temple, chanting to Zeus, Apollo and Athena asking the gods for their help in curing the city's woes. The Chorus describes the sickness that spreads throughout Thebes, getting stronger as more people die and spread the illness, showing why the gods need to step in and help. The Chorus continues to ask the gods for help, but this time single out Zeus, Apollo, Artemis and especially Dionysus to solve the various problems that face Thebes all at once.

March 19, 2009

Propaganda

Image from here

This poster was one aimed at the American people as a whole and trying to keep them from being swayed by German or Japanese propaganda. It's somewhat insulting to the American people though since it sends the message that they shouldn't be duped by the other sides' propaganda, just their own since that's the one that doesn't harm them and can in fact help them. It's a believable idea since the religions mentioned on the poster were the big three of the time and therefore directly applicable to the vast majority of citizens of the country. The idea of the slogan, that the enemy is trying to play the people against one another, would stay in people's minds but not necessarily the actual word for word slogan. Rather than making the target audience feel manipulated by the poster, it would have made them feel that they were actually being released from the manipulation by the Nazis and Japanese and that the people could then see what the "truth" of the matter really was.

We-Patterns

In Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, there is the obvious pattern of geometric descriptions of everything in D-503's world. D-503 even describes sounds as having shapes in "He looked at me, laughed sharply, javelinishly" (Zamyatin 80). This pattern is used to exaggerate the dependence the society has on math, so much of one that even abstract ideas or non-tangible items must be condensed into an easily understood, definite, mathematical idea. If this mathematical need wasn't there, D-503 would not have been able to describe it as "javelinishly," giving it a definite shape, but instead could have said something such as, "it pierced me" with it still having the sharp connotation, but remaining abstract.

March 11, 2009

Dystopian Journal #1: Topic C

In We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, the idea that math can be used to explain everything in the universe is pushed to the extreme in the sense that the fictional society starts to believe that math should be used to explain everything. Not only is everything to be explained by math, but everything has geometric descriptions: face like an X, O shaped mouth, etc. This hyperbole of a civilization is shown to be the result of mathematical growth from today's society. Everything lately has been in terms of numbers such as the economy where everything depends on formulas and figures determined by other formulas and figures and so on. Zamyatin is not telling people to abandon math, the society functions just fine using it, it is just an extremely boring one if it is relying solely on arithmetic properties. The main character, D-503, even starts out loving the preciseness of math and how he is able to use it to explain anything he wants using a formula, so clearly the reader is not supposed to despise math and all of its results, just realize the lack of excitement it brings with it. Zamyatin suggests an alternative that math is an acceptable tool for areas of life that would require it, such as engineering, science and architecture, but indirectly related areas should be left clean of it. In general, life should be full of spontaneity and unpredictable events rather than cold and calculated numbers dictating exactly how everything will function for years upon years to come. If everything is able to be calculated from information of the past, those calculations would be able to predict what would happen in the future and the point of having a future is so that one can go into it not knowing what will come next.

-Word Count: 300

March 3, 2009

Journal: Meursault's Conclusion

By the end of The Stranger Meursault comes to the conclusion that he doesn't in fact care about any part of his life once he has accepted the idea that he is going to be executed. Camus most likely did not intend for the reader to come to this same conclusion unless under similar circumstances where inevitable death was coming quick and even then, probably not. Most likely, Camus intended for the reader to feel sorry for the man who had but a few days left to his life and would make nothing of them except to be completely apathetic about every aspect of his dwindling time. Camus wanted the reader to realize that in the last days of his or her life, he or she should make the most of what is left instead of giving up after accepting the fact.

March 2, 2009

Journal: Thesis Statement

Although many regard Albert Camus' The Stranger as a purely existential work, it is shown that, through use of symbols, character foils and the author's tone, the theme is in fact that meaning to life invades one's being no matter how hard it is resisted.